Nef smooth, Tif jaggy question

[Peter69322]

Opened an NEF pic of boy in red wrestling suit in NC2. Looked great. With no editing, saved as TIF--> photoshop, and the entire edge between suit/skin was jaggy, like a poorly compressed jpeg. Opened the NEF file from drive directly into PS and...the same thing! Any ideas? Thanks....Peter

 

[Thom Hogan]

Opened an NEF pic of boy in red wrestling suit in NC2. Looked
great. With no editing, saved as TIF--> photoshop, and the entire
edge between suit/skin was jaggy, like a poorly compressed jpeg.
Opened the NEF file from drive directly into PS and...the same
thing! Any ideas? Thanks....Peter

Let me take a wild guess: the red suit was contrasted with a background that was mostly blue or black (or underexposed). If so, what you're seeing is one of the faults of the Bayer pattern; resolution drops by 75% in worst-case transitions, and the jaggies you see are extreme staircase aliasing.

While the problem is in the original NEF, try running it through the latest version of QImage Pro, which looks for such transition areas and smooths them out. You may have to apply a more agressive edge sharpening after, but you can often get rid of the jaggies that way.--Thom Hoganauthor, Nikon Field Guideauthor, Nikon Flash Guideauthor, Complete Guide to the Nikon D1, D1h, & D1xwww.bythom.com

 

[Peter69322]

Thom- Thanks for the reply. I guess I can't post the 2 pics cause I'd have to post an NEF, (can I?) and TIF rather than jpeg. But, the red suit is contrasted to his skin, it was a flash shot with background quite dark. The NEF itself is perfectly smooth viewed in NC2 but stiarcased when viewed as an NEF in PS as well as when converted to TIF in PS. Why would the same NEF only have the problem in PS?? Ah- the wonders of digital darkrooming!!....Peter

Opened an NEF pic of boy in red wrestling suit in NC2. Looked
great. With no editing, saved as TIF--> photoshop, and the entire
edge between suit/skin was jaggy, like a poorly compressed jpeg.
Opened the NEF file from drive directly into PS and...the same
thing! Any ideas? Thanks....Peter

Let me take a wild guess: the red suit was contrasted with a
background that was mostly blue or black (or underexposed). If so,
what you're seeing is one of the faults of the Bayer pattern;
resolution drops by 75% in worst-case transitions, and the jaggies
you see are extreme staircase aliasing.

While the problem is in the original NEF, try running it through
the latest version of QImage Pro, which looks for such transition
areas and smooths them out. You may have to apply a more agressive
edge sharpening after, but you can often get rid of the jaggies
that way.
--
Thom Hogan
author, Nikon Field Guide
author, Nikon Flash Guide
author, Complete Guide to the Nikon D1, D1h, & D1x
http://www.bythom.com

 

[AnneB]

Thom- Thanks for the reply. I guess I can't post the 2 pics cause
I'd have to post an NEF, (can I?) and TIF rather than jpeg. But,
the red suit is contrasted to his skin, it was a flash shot with
background quite dark. The NEF itself is perfectly smooth viewed in
NC2 but stiarcased when viewed as an NEF in PS as well as when
converted to TIF in PS. Why would the same NEF only have the
problem in PS?? Ah- the wonders of digital darkrooming!!....Peter

Just a wild guess - check the viewing resolution in PS. PS opens files at different resolutions than does NC2. Do a "view actual pixels" and a "view print size" to see if the jaggies disappear. I've had this happen before.

 

[Paul F Caldwell]

The more you sharpen the image the worse the effect. In Capture 2 it picks up your incamera sharpening setting as the default. If you have none on in the camera that is one reason why Capture 2 may show it as so smooth. However check your settings and then save the image as a tiff from Capture 2 then open it in Photoshop. Don't open it in PS with the viewer. Also make sureyou have the latest version of Capture 2, 2.02, you can download the updater from Nikons tech site.

Paul

Opened an NEF pic of boy in red wrestling suit in NC2. Looked
great. With no editing, saved as TIF--> photoshop, and the entire
edge between suit/skin was jaggy, like a poorly compressed jpeg.
Opened the NEF file from drive directly into PS and...the same
thing! Any ideas? Thanks....Peter

Let me take a wild guess: the red suit was contrasted with a
background that was mostly blue or black (or underexposed). If so,
what you're seeing is one of the faults of the Bayer pattern;
resolution drops by 75% in worst-case transitions, and the jaggies
you see are extreme staircase aliasing.

While the problem is in the original NEF, try running it through
the latest version of QImage Pro, which looks for such transition
areas and smooths them out. You may have to apply a more agressive
edge sharpening after, but you can often get rid of the jaggies
that way.
--
Thom Hogan
author, Nikon Field Guide
author, Nikon Flash Guide
author, Complete Guide to the Nikon D1, D1h, & D1x
http://www.bythom.com

 

[Peter69322]

AnneB- Great guess!! I was viewing in fit to screen. Changing to either "actual pixels" or even "print size" zoomed to 100%, it's absolutely smooth!. I don't have time to print, (I have to get to work sometime today) but sure hope it prints smoothly tonight. What is up with jaggy egdes when viewing in "fit to screen"?? Thanks...Peter

Thom- Thanks for the reply. I guess I can't post the 2 pics cause
I'd have to post an NEF, (can I?) and TIF rather than jpeg. But,
the red suit is contrasted to his skin, it was a flash shot with
background quite dark. The NEF itself is perfectly smooth viewed in
NC2 but stiarcased when viewed as an NEF in PS as well as when
converted to TIF in PS. Why would the same NEF only have the
problem in PS?? Ah- the wonders of digital darkrooming!!....Peter

Just a wild guess - check the viewing resolution in PS. PS opens
files at different resolutions than does NC2. Do a "view actual
pixels" and a "view print size" to see if the jaggies disappear.
I've had this happen before.

 

[Micheal Hall]

Photoshop only antialiases images viewed on screen when set to a magnification that is an even division of 100% - i.e. 12.5%, 25% 50% or - at 66.7 or 33, etc. the image is not antialiased on the screen and you can get funny aliasing results, like you just saw.

Always keep your view % at one of the above values and Photoshop will antialias the screen view for you and you won't see the jaggies.

-m

P.S. - Good call Anne - I'm so used to Photoshops behavior in this area, I never would have suggested the idea. It's just something that I always work around - I was much faster to think of the Bayer pattern limitations as Thom did.

 

[AnneB]

Photoshop only antialiases images viewed on screen when set to a
magnification that is an even division of 100% - i.e. 12.5%, 25%
50% or - at 66.7 or 33, etc. the image is not antialiased on the
screen and you can get funny aliasing results, like you just saw.

Always keep your view % at one of the above values and Photoshop
will antialias the screen view for you and you won't see the
jaggies.

-m

P.S. - Good call Anne - I'm so used to Photoshops behavior in this
area, I never would have suggested the idea. It's just something
that I always work around - I was much faster to think of the Bayer
pattern limitations as Thom did.

Comes from working a lot with other people's photos! And experience transferring from Capture to PS.